Last night my favorite contemporary fiction author came to Austin, the one and only Douglas Coupland. “Who?” you obviously may ask. I’ll cut to the chase. Douglas Coupland wrote Generation X which properly/improperly branded the generation of North Americans usually born after the Baby Boomers but before the Millennials; whatever the evil marketing forces label people in order to sell you crap.
Outside of Generation X, Coupland has written numerous novels since his 1991 debut; Shampoo Planet, Girlfriend in a Coma, Life after God, andMicroSerfs. He also has done numerous magazine articles, the ones I have seen were in Details or Wired. He dabbles in art but at the book signing, Coupland revealed more about the pop and performance art he is very fond of and how he integrates its influences into his latest novel, JPod.
Douglas Coupland with his opening remarks.
Book signings are always exciting. When they’re at Book People (see the Austintatious section), they’re even better because this independent store does them very well. I think the turn out was rather light because it on a weeknight and numerous authors don’t quite have the name recognition as Alton Brown, Bruce Campbell or Anne Rice (past signings I’ve attended). On the other hand, it was better to have a lower turnout so I could get more face time with the author.
As always, Douglas Coupland was funny, insightful and entertaining. He enjoyed the Austin audience more than the LA crowd he saw the night before since we were laughing at his politically incorrect comments and swearing. He said LA was rather hushed and there were some puzzled looks. There was a brief explanation of the book’s nature, his discovery of pop art in 1970 which pushed him into the career he has now and how one’s 20s are really a rough, transitional period of adulthood. I certainly agree on the last statement because my 30s have been a vast improvement financially as well as emotionally. Then he read the book jacket notes that are only in the Canadian printing of the book. Mainly random phrases on instructions, graffiti or thoughts you’d overhear in an office; another nod to pop art from him. When he chose to read from JPod, Coupland chose the section he wrote himself into; the narrator meets the real Douglas Coupland on a long flight from Vancouver to Hong Kong. Vanity? Ego? Not really in my opinion, I think he wanted to see if it could be pulled off, like a dare. Nevertheless, before he read the section, he told the audience that his appearance in the book is brief and he ends up being a villain to the narrator. He was write and it resulted in hiliarity which means I will be reading this book as soon as I’ve completed the history factoid one I’m plodding through (I’m a slow reader, it’s not the author’s fault).
When it came to Q&A, he also shines here by making jokes about how past Q&A’s have gone. According to him, the first question is lame. Second question goes on too long and the audience despises the questioner. Third question is a bit more awkward but the crowd loves the person asking. So he said, let’s assume we’re on the fourth question. Sadly, not many were asked. I couldn’t think of anything relevant myself and I don’t want to waste anyone’s time since the people who do, irk me. The questions were asked were about his interview with Morrissey, why all the Smiths songs, his opinion of a different pop artist and my favorite; being a Canadian, living in Vancouver and watching the US from outside, what’s his take on current events. Coupland’s answer was a bit elaborate and I can only paraphrase it. He feels many Canadians think we’ve lost our minds and there’s something nastier going on than in 1863. However, Canada is helpless to doing anything anyway thus they can only do what the rest of the world has decided; hunker down, brace for impact and hope for the best because everything America does these days affects everyone else. I sure hope he’s right.
Douglas Coupland and me.
Now for my favorite part, when he signed my book! With the low turnout, I could have some quality face time with him. I told him about our encounter in 2002, I’m the guy who works for Apple and he was right about how hot the iPod became. Coupland’s response, “Please tell me you bought Apple stock before then.” I said no, but I had 200 options that I did cash out and made $6500. He smiled and approved. We talked a little bit about Canadian v. American politics, mainly how I told him how I envied Canada’s recent two parliamentary elections versus America’s regimented cycle of two or four years. How so? With the recent accusations of Paul Martin’s past as finance minister under the Chrétien government, a “do over” can be declared instead of waiting for the term to expire. Coupland asked me if I thought Gore would run again. I said, I like the guy but he’s put to better use promoting his personal causes and being on the Apple Board of Directors. Who knows though.
What did he write in my copy of JPod? “to Steve! with cheers. Douglas Coupland. 6/13/6” Be expecting a book review on it by the end of the Summer, unless I can read any faster. I know I will see if I can find the error in the 20 pages of Pi because he promised the audience that the first reader to find it wins a Groundskeeper Willie coffee mug.